COVID-19 vaccination walk-in service of DH’s Elderly Health Centres to expand (with photo)

     The Department of Health (DH) today (January 12) announced that 12 Elderly Health Centres (EHCs) will expand their COVID-19 vaccination service to provide walk-in vaccination with the CoronaVac vaccine for all persons aged 65 or above starting tomorrow (January 13), in order to further encourage and facilitate the elderly in receiving COVID-19 vaccination. Together with the three EHCs providing such service currently, a total of 15 EHCs of the DH will provide walk-in vaccination for the elderly. In addition, the DH will also extend the daily vaccination hours and offer an additional time slot on Saturday morning.

     From tomorrow to February 28, apart from the three EHCs announced earlier (i.e. Lam Tin EHC, Sai Ying Pun EHC and Tseung Kwan O EHC), another 12 EHCs will also provide COVID-19 vaccination walk-in services (no prior booking is required) to all elderly persons aged 65 or above.

     The 15 EHCs offering the walk-in vaccination service and their addresses are listed in the Annex.

     The vaccination time slots are: Monday to Friday: 8.30am to 12.30pm and 2pm to 6.30pm; and Saturday: 8.30am to 1pm (except public holidays).

     Elderly persons need to present their Hong Kong identity cards for registration on a first-come, first-served basis until the daily quota is full. If the daily quota is full, the staff of the centre will arrange another date and time of vaccination for the elderly. In order to spare more facilities and manpower in providing COVID-19 vaccination service, while the booked medical and allied health consultation services for members and the seasonal influenza vaccination service for all persons aged 65 or above will continue to be provided at the above 15 EHCs, other services will be suspended. The staff of the centres will make further arrangements for those affected members with booked appointments.

     "According to local data as of December 31, 2021, the case fatality ratio for patients aged 80 or above who had tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus is the highest (24.9 per cent), followed by that of patients aged between 70 and 79 (7.7 per cent). The COVID-19 vaccination rate for the elderly aged 80 or above in Hong Kong is only around 25 per cent at present. The Comirnaty and CoronaVac vaccines are highly effective in preventing severe cases and deaths from SARS-CoV-2 virus. They can provide effective protection to those vaccinated in preventing serious complications and even death after infection. As the more transmissible mutant strain Omicron has entered the community, people who have yet to receive vaccination, especially senior citizens, chronic patients and other immunocompromised persons who face a higher chance of death after COVID-19 infection, should get vaccinated as early as possible for self-protection and to reduce the risk of falling seriously ill and death should they get infected," a spokesman for the DH said.

     The Government has expanded the third dose COVID-19 vaccination programme since January 1 this year to include all people who have received two doses of vaccines for a period of time. Eligible elderly persons should also receive a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible to enhance personal protection.

     The spokesman reminded members of the public that they should take note of a minimum interval of 14 days between COVID-19 vaccination and any other vaccination (including seasonal influenza vaccination).

     For enquiries, please contact the EHCs concerned during service hours. Details are also available at www.elderly.gov.hk/eindex.html.